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"NAIROBI (Reuters) - Ethiopia has overtaken Dubai as a conduit for long-haul passengers to Africa, highlighting the success of the state airline’s expansion drive and the reforms of its new prime minister.

Travel consultancy ForwardKeys said on Wednesday Addis Ababa airport had increased the number of international transfer passengers to sub-Saharan Africa for five years in a row, and in 2018 had surpassed Dubai, one of the world’s busiest airports, as the transfer hub for long-haul travel to the region.

Analysing data from travel booking systems that record 17 million flight bookings a day, ForwardKeys found the number of long-haul transfers to sub-Saharan Africa via Addis Ababa jumped by 85 percent from 2013 to 2017. Transfers via Dubai over the same period rose by 31 percent.

Dubai has long been a major global air travel hub because it is the base of Gulf carrier Emirates. Given the lack of an “open skies” deal smoothing flights across Africa, many passengers travelling between one part of the continent and another, or from Asia or Europe to Africa, must often transit through Dubai.

But this is changing.

Ethiopian Airlines, the country’s most successful state company, is accelerating a 15-year strategy it launched in 2010 to win back market share on routes to and from Africa that are dominated by Turkish Airlines and Emirates.

It is also weaving a patchwork of new African routes to rapidly expanding and lucrative Asian markets....."

“Ethiopian Airlines has announced that flights from Los Angeles to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, via Lome, Togo, are set to commence on Dec. 17. The airline has been flying to Los Angeles since 2015, but previously had made a stop in Dublin.

The new route will be the only and first of its kind to connect the West Coast of the U.S. with West Africa with a nonstop flight. Ethiopian's Lome hub will offer Los Angeles passengers convenient access to cities in Nigeria, Ghana, Cote d'Ivoire, and points throughout Africa.

Dublin will remain part of the airline's network with a new route planned from Dublin to Addis Ababa via Madrid starting Dec. 16.”